Metro News & Reviews

The space required to transport 60 people

I stumbled over this photo of a poster on Tumblr this morning. It’s been kicking around the Internet for years — I think it was originally produced in Germany — but the message certainly never gets old.

It’s hard not to think about it in the wake of the most recent CicLAvia, when it was quite obvious that our streets have the capacity to move an awful lot of cyclists at one time. It was also a chance to witness (yet again) the shocking amount of parking available in downtown Los Angeles — more than is needed and space that could probably be more productively used.

I think about this exact thing all the time stuck in traffic. The sheer volume requirements of American cars is amazing, if nothing else. But I do see more scooters out there…maybe a lane of traffic on some major LA artery could be taken from the cars and split between bikes and scooters?